PROTECTION
CmReady – Three Cheers for Diversity !
A favorite of developers with decades of success in the software industry has truly arrived in the hardware world of modern industry : CodeMeter for software protection and license management . A new partnership with Swissbit and the CmReady label by Wibu-Systems is creating a world of opportunities for engineers in the field .
In Focus : Product security and monetization
Wibu-Systems has been innovating the software and know-how protection landscape and offering flexible monetization solutions for a range of target platforms since the company was founded more than 30 years ago , and it has never ceased to follow its pursuit . What started for software makers only has now become a popular choice for industrial enterprises around the world . Industrial devices like Programmable Logic Controllers ( PLCs ) are run by the software and firmware on board , and the makers of CodeMeter soon realized that they could transport their protection and licensing know-how to a whole new market by tweaking it for the needs of industrial automation and engineering clients .
On top of pure product security considerations , driven not least by legal requirements ( e . g . IEC 62443 , Cyber Resilience Act ) or the wish to protect one ’ s know-how in the form of software or data , more and more businesses are interested in how they can monetize product features and create new business models through licenses . Most hardware devices are , in essence , built with the entire feature set on board , but it is left to the end users to decide which of these features is worth paying for and should be activated . They can buy the licenses for individual features when they need them for a specific purpose , creating an attractive aftermarket sales channel .
The advantages of CmDongles Device makers have a choice of ways to get their licenses rolled out to their users , depending on the use case . Alongside pure software license containers ( CmActLicense ) that are bound to a specific hardware fingerprint of the target device , or cloud-based licenses ( Cm- CloudLicense ), fully hardware-based dongles ( CmDongle ) remain a popular evergreen choice for industrial device makers in particular . Their key unique selling point ( USP ), the ability to store cryptographic keys in a secure element physically built into the dongle , goes hand in hand with the great mobility afforded by the licenses , especially when devices need to be serviced . If needed , the device makers can even choose CmDongles with added flash storage for the hat trick : IP protection , monetization , and storage space , all on one medium .
All shapes and sizes Wibu-Systems was quick to realize these requirements and has long offered a range of CmDongle formats and form factors . Many makers of embedded and IoT devices prefer run-of-the-mill mass storage media like SD or microSD cards , which avoid the need for adding a USB interface or integrating a CmASIC to add CodeMeter functionality right into their devices ’ inner workings . The CmCard line was made for them . Whatever the form factor , all options support the complete feature set and all flexible licensing models allowed by CodeMeter .
Bane or boon ? Every upside comes with a downside : Which type ( SLC , pSLC , MLC ) and which size of flash storage a device maker picks has a major impact on costs , translating directly to higher costs in the device maker ’ s bill of materials . This can become a dealbreaker for low-end or discount devices in particular . At the same time , the vast range of memory types and sizes means that there is a CmDongle for virtually any requirements in the field , even if this means higher costs for development and qualification . Would it not be better to have a new
6